Sensex closes off record high, Yes Bank gains by 23 pc

Equity benchmark indices ended higher on Thursday but off the day's high after Sensex touched a fresh record high of 40,392 in intraday trading session.

The market mood was positive amid optimism in global markets after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the third time in a row by 25 basis points.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 77 points or 0.2 per cent higher at 40,129 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 37 points to 11,881. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty PSU bank up by 3.8 per cent, IT by 1.1 per cent and FMCG by 0.9 per cent.

Among stocks, private sector lender Yes Bank was winner of the day after announcement that it has received a binding offer of 1.2 billion dollars from a global investor. The stock closed with gains of 23.77 per cent at Rs 70.30 per share.

Public sector State Bank of India too showed handsome gains of 7.8 per cent to close at Rs 312.50 per cent. The other prominent gainers were Grasim, Infosys, Bharti Infratel, Tata Motors, GAIL and Wipro.

However, metal stocks showed de-growth with JSW Steel declining by 2.8 per cent and Tata Steel by 2 per cent. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank too were in the red along with Tech Mahindra, Vedanta and Reliance Industries.

Meanwhile, Asian shares and US stock futures edged higher after the Fed cut interest rates to keep economic expansion on track. However, the Fed hinted that there will be no further cuts unless deemed necessary.

Japan's Nikkei moved up by 0.37 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index by 0.9 per cent and South Korea's Kospi by 0.15 per cent.

But the Shanghai Composite index slipped by 0.35 per cent as data showed that factory activity in China shrank for the sixth straight month in October.

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